NEW PARKS TO EASE MOBILE HOME TENANTS' CRISIS

With the opening later this month of two shelter parks for mobile home tenants, a crisis that developed in Palm Beach County in 1985 will be eased.

Problems began in 1985 as owners of mobile home parks throughout the county placed tenants on notice of imminent eviction because of the park owners' plans to convert the property to more profitable uses.

"There was a crisis and potentially there could have been a bigger crisis," Alice Skaggs said on Friday. Skaggs, director of the county's Consumer Affairs Office, served as chairman of the Mobile Home Task Force established in 1985 by the County Commission.

"As it worked out, all the crises were taken care of but that does not mean some new ones won't develop in the future," Skaggs said.

High land values made other uses for the properties more attractive to owners of some mobile home parks and the same high land values were making development of new mobile home parks unattractive.

By mid-1986, about 700 mobile home units were subject to displacement because of pending or potential conversion of their lots to other uses.

About 300 of those owners were in dire straits because of their inability to find alternate locations for their trailers.

The initial crisis has been met through a combination of government financial aid to mobile home park developments and through a relaxation of the zoning restrictions on the parks to allow higher densities.

As a result, at least three mobile home parks have been developed in the county since the 1985 problem arose.

Developer Dairell Snapp received a $300,000 community development grant from the county to help pay road and utility development cost at the 96-unit Marlboro Court park.

Under the grant agreement, at least 51 percent of the home spaces must be reserved for low- and moderate-income residents in the park, which is near Cresthaven Boulevard and Military Trail, west of West Palm Beach.

Another Snapp project, the 134-unit Long Lakes Village on Haverhill Road, between Forest Hill and Summit boulevards, is one of two that is scheduled to begin accepting tenants by the end of the month, Skaggs said.

A third project, Plantation at Lantana, also will begin accepting tenants in the next few weeks, Skaggs said.

Plantation developer Joe Dixon received permission from the County Commission in 1986 to develop 6.2 lots per acre on a 17-acre portion of the tract and five lots per acre on 20 acres of the property. The project is located near Lantana West Road and Jog Road.

The County Commission's approval overruled county planners' recommendations that no more than four lots per acre be developed.

Dixon is being sued in Palm Beach County Circuit Court by the company that sold him the 20-acre parcel, Tartan Gulf Coast Development Corp., which claims he has reneged on a promise to purchase a separate 15-acre parcel from the company as one of the conditions for the sale of the 20 acres.

Jeff Lis, a spokesman for Dixon Development Corp., said Friday that the 15- acre parcel that is subject to the lawsuit is not adjacent to or otherwise related to the mobile home community.